TEL AVIV — Egyptian military aircraft have overflown Israel territory for the first time since the 1967 war, Israeli military sources said.
The sources said over the last few months Egyptian military
helicopters have entered Israeli air space several times. They said the Egyptian
flights sparked an alert of the Israel Air Force, which sent fighter-jets to
intercept the Egyptian aircraft.
In one case, the sources said, an Egyptian military French-origin
Gazelle helicopter crossed the Israeli border and appeared headed toward the
nuclear reactor at Dimona. Israeli aircraft and ground units responded
quickly and the helicopter returned to Egypt.
On Thursday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Olmert and
congratulated him for his victory in the Israeli election on March 28, Middle East Newsline reported. An
Israeli government statement did not refer to the Egyptian overflights.
"We have never seen such behavior before," a military source said of the penetrations. "This
is extremely disturbing."
Under the 1979 treaty, Egypt was banned from flying helicopters along
the eastern Sinai Peninsula. But in 2005 the treaty was modified to allow
Cairo to deploy armored personnel carriers, heavy weapons and utility
helicopters near the Israeli border.
The sources said the government of acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has
been concerned over the Egyptian overflights. But they said the government
has refrained from relaying a formal protest in an attempt to maintain what
has been regarded as heightened military cooperation between Cairo and
Jerusalem.
